


She Was a Punk, and She Did Ballet

by fight_thehurricane



Series: What No One Tells You About Growing Up [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Absent Parent, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, audrey is a bitch for plot reasons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-02 01:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15785853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fight_thehurricane/pseuds/fight_thehurricane
Summary: Molly and Lucy were close as could be when they were young, but Percy worried they'd fall apart as their interests kept moving further and further apart. And then came the bombshell: Lucy was a squib, and some things did fall apart. It all worked out in the end, but that wouldn't stop Percy from worrying.





	She Was a Punk, and She Did Ballet

**Author's Note:**

> There's a fanart version on Tumblr  
> http://mythicall-y.tumblr.com/post/177286336962/lucy-and-molly-next-gen

Lucy and Molly, Molly and Lucy. They were inseparable in childhood and they drove Percy mad. They reminded him of the terrors that were Fred and George when he was growing up. But things changed quickly enough.

It wasn’t the different friend groups in primary school that did it (and yes, Percy sent them to primary school; Hermione had insisted on it to provide a well rounded education before they went off to Hogwarts and proceeded…  _not_ to learn basic Maths and English, and she made a compelling enough argument for him.) Lucy was somewhat of a tomboy to Molly’s insistence that absolutely everything she owned be pink. Lucy wanted to learn electric guitar and play football in muddy fields where Molly was happy to gossip with the other ten year old girls and joined a ballet class. Percy fretted that these differences would pull them apart and no matter how much he complained when they were young that they were entirely too much like Fred and George, he didn’t like the idea of them not being close. But he needn’t have worried, it turned out. Lucy and Molly complained about each others fashion, yes and each others friends but they were friends. And that wouldn’t change. But he really did worry when they realised Lucy wouldn't be going to Hogwarts. Because she was a squib. 

Yes. Well. It was bound to happen to their family eventually, wasn’t it? Though Percy hadn’t really expected it to happen to him. No one really did though. And they’d managed to deny it right up until Lucy’s birthday came and went with no sign of an owl from Hogwarts for her. Molly had always thought receiving her letter would be one of the most exciting days ever, but there was nothing exciting about opening her letter whilst Lucy sat, pale faced, staring at the window as if there was a second owl coming for her.  The signs had been there for so long, they just hadn't wanted to see it. She’d cried, of course, having grown up on stories of adventures in those old castle halls. Her whole family had gone, it made no sense that she’d be excluded from it. She’d spent every Christmas and Easter listening wide-eyed to her older cousins and their stories as they returned from their years at Hogwarts (though, naturally, theirs were less action packed than the tales that came from her uncles Harry and Ron, and aunt Hermione). Percy realised he didn’t mind so much that she was a squib, he minded that she was so heartbroken about it. It was his fault, he thought, for not accepting it sooner, for letting her hopes get so high. Maybe if they had gotten their heads out their arses, they could have prepared her for this day, so she wouldn't be hit so hard when there was no letter. 

Audrey wasn’t so accepting. She was a pure-blood, from another one of those old lines, and he used to think that she was better than that. Better than turning blue at Lucy’s lack of a Hogwarts letter and making snide comments at dinner whilst they discussed arrangements for Molly. But there was a weird phenomenon amongst liberal pure-blood's. Squibs were fine, as long as it wasn't from their family. Percy stayed up late thinking about it, remembering vaguely about that one uncle from mum's side of the family. He wouldn't do that, he knew that. But Audrey...

It was late in August when it all culminated. Audrey had screamed, questioning how she was meant to face the rest of her family, the rest of society when she had given birth to a ‘mistake’. Percy was strangely calm. On later reflection, he thought that perhaps his capacity to anger had been filled from the months in between the twins birthday in February and that day in August. He simply told her to leave. And that was it. Fourteen years of marriage was over just like that. And somehow he just didn't seem to care. It was easy to fall out of love with someone in these types of circumstances. Of course, she didn't just leave. There was Molly to consider. So Audrey had stormed upstairs (right passed Lucy who had been listening as she sat on the stairs with tears streaming down her face), packed her stuff with the wave of a wand and them knocked on Molly's door. Molly who hated confrontation and had hid in her room whilst her parents argued. She opened the door with an unnaturally pale with and looked up at her mother.

"Molly... darling. Your mother's moving away from here," she said, kneeling down and placing her hand on Molly's cheek. Molly looked at her with wide eyes. "I'm so terribly sorry to do this to you darling, I know you love your father but I simply cannot live here anymore. I cannot be with him... anymore. Would you like some help packing your bags?"

"What?" came Molly's small voice, horrified.

"You'll come with me, won't you? You wouldn't leave your poor mother alone..." 

Molly's eyes darted to Lucy, who was still sat at the top of the staircase with her back to her. But her shoulders were hunched and shaking. Percy was sat next to her with his arm on her shoulders. Molly stood up straight and looked her mother in her eyes with a look of steely determination. 

"I'm staying here. With Lucy. My  _sister._ "

Audrey's face contorted with rage but Percy was quick to step in between them. Audrey looked at him with blazing eyes. Then shook her head, picked up her bags and left. 

And Percy could rest easy knowing that that no matter the superficial differences, he would never have to worry about Molly and Lucy drifting away from each other. Even if Molly went to Hogwarts in Scotland whilst Lucy stayed at home to attend the local grammar school in London. Their family may have cracked, but it had knitted them closer together. And they were fine. Really fine. 

Well. 

Except that one time Lucy had gone to the school dance, worn a purple dress and gotten her friends to do her makeup and decided not to tell Molly about that or the boy she had gone with. Molly had been apoplectic, shouting about betrayed, when she'd found out by finding the picture taped to the fridge.


End file.
